Bart Verschoor and Joris Verschoor: SEAL

Bart and Joris Verschoor

SEAL is a digital twin platform with an untamperable virtual and physical link which allows building digital features/apps on top of products.

THE PROBLEM

We envision one platform where anti-counterfeiting and the circular economy come together. Why? Many global problems relate to products: made-to-fail designs, child labour, ecological crime, resource wars, counterfeiting, grey markets, terror funding, the plastic ocean, carbon emissions, theft, parallel trade, etc. Our platform addresses all of the above. Fixing them starts by capturing data of what’s out there and what’s being used by who. We do this with material passports, which can only be reliably implemented if products are uniquely identifiable and cannot be cloned.

THE INNOVATION

Seal is a blockchain platform that gives products an identity by pairing a virtual counterpart to each unique item, on which we run digital services. Consumers scan a chip on the product with their phone. The core of the design is our digital twin implementation (chip) that changes state every time you interact with it, which is embedded into the physical item. This keeps people from duplicating the physical ID. We can add material passports, item information and provenance information to the ID, and grant permission access rights to certain stakeholders.

Consumers use the Seal app which holds an inventory of all the items they own. They can scan the embedded-chip with their phone and claim ownership. Every time they claim ownership, they pay the brand a small fee (similar to royalties), and the buyer will know it’s genuine.

THE VISION

Imagine a world where you can be sure that every product is genuine and safe. A world where every product is uniquely identifiable by its own digital twin. This lets brands and others create new application on top of the digital twin. Applications which can address ownership, sustainability and traceability issues and help them create new business models. Models which create new revenue streams based on ownership and allow them to create products which last longer or can be reused. We call this the infrastructure of authenticity. Let’s create a better world with less waste, higher quality and more integrity.